1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a telecommunication terminal, and more particularly to a telecommunication terminal having a rotatable display unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
As technologies related to telecommunication terminals develop, current telecommunication terminals can not only provide stationary images, but also a video service such as a VOD (video on-demand). The display unit of conventional telecommunication terminals, however, has a vertical size larger than the horizontal size and, when supplied with a video service having a ratio of 16:9, the screen is generally reduced. Therefore, a telecommunication terminal having a rotatable display unit capable of displaying video information while being rotated in the horizontal direction is desired. This type of telecommunication terminal will hereinafter be referred to as a “horizontally-viewable telecommunication terminal.”
FIGS. 1A to 1D show examples of conventional horizontally-viewable telecommunication terminals. FIG. 1A shows the display unit not rotated in the horizontal direction; FIG. 1B shows the display unit rotated in the horizontal direction; FIG. 1C shows the display unit rotated in the horizontal direction; and FIG. 1D shows the display unit is rotated in the horizontal direction. The horizontally-viewable telecommunication terminal can display video information in the horizontal direction, when providing a user with a video service such as a VOD, for a wider video screen. Using the horizontally-viewable telecommunication terminal, therefore, the user can be provided with a video service through a wider screen by rotating the display unit in the horizontal direction.
Conventional horizontally-viewable telecommunication terminals, however, have a problem in that the direction in which the UI (user interface) screen is displayed is fixed. More specifically, the UI screen is displayed from top to bottom in a conventional horizontally-viewable telecommunication terminal, as shown in FIG. 1A. The display direction of the UI screen remains the same, however, even after the display unit is rotated in the horizontal direction, and the UI screen is provided while lying in the horizontal direction as shown in FIG. 1B. When using a service such as a VOD, therefore, the user must select a desired video service while the display unit is not rotated as shown in FIG. 1A, due to the fixed display direction of the UI screen, and then rotate the display unit as shown in FIG. 1B after the video service begins to be provided. As such, the display unit must be unnecessarily rotated a number of times in the conventional horizontally-viewable telecommunication terminals.
Of course, the display direction of the UI screen may be rotated according to the rotation of the display unit, even in conventional horizontally-viewable telecommunication terminals. FIGS. 1C and 1D show examples of the UI screen displayed while being rotated. Although the UI screen is rotated as the display unit is rotated, referring to FIG. 1C, black regions appear on both sides of the modified screen and some regions are not visible due to mismatch of horizontal vs. vertical ratio. This is because only a single UI screen is used, the lengths of the horizontal and vertical display regions of which are predetermined. Although FIG. 1D also shows the UI screen displayed while being rotated, the UI screen is distorted because the horizontal vs. vertical ratio is inadvertently modified without considering the difference in length of the horizontal and vertical display regions.